PRACTICAL SIMCHA B’MITZVOS; Part 3Let us begin with a quote from Part 1:The אורחות צדיקים writes that a mitzvah b’simcha accrues 1000 times more reward than without it. Think about it; it is the same old davening (perhaps even faster since you are enjoying it) but if you are b’simcha it is like (almost) 3 years of burdensome davening. Having simcha in a single Yom Kippur makes it worth many, many more Yemai Kippurim than otherwise experienced in a lifetime! One hour of enjoyable learning is like 250 four-hour sedarim. [Some are profoundly moved by this type of idea. (A noted psychologist told me he has guided many patients to be more joyful, with the above concept, which he learned about in Part 1!) Others find them not so meaningful. The following essay is for the first group.]חז"ל say that אחד בצער שוה למאהשלא בצער – a מצוה done with difficulty is worth one hundred times a מצוה done without difficulty. Rav Yisrael taught that the minimum shiur of “difficulty” can be culled from the גמראבערכין טז:which says:עדהיכןתכליתיסורין...אפילוהושיטידולכיסליטולשלשועלובידושתים..‘..Evenreachingintohispocketfor three coins and receiving two is יסורים (רש"י-sincehemust reach again for the third coin)By applying that “measure” to מצוות, Rav Yisrael reasoned that doing a מצוה at that miniscule level of discomfort brings a hundred times more reward than a “regular” מצוה! Rav Dessler makes a bold step. He claims that if one’s difficulty level increases another equally miniscule degree it is worth another hundred times and that 2nd hundred-fold is exponential. Meaning the reward value is 100 times the first 100 times; that’s altogether 100,000 times a “regular” מצוה. Every new level of discomfort causes the same colossal increase. Thank G-d for headaches!Let’s apply the same thinking to Simcha. In Part 1 we learned the minimum level of simcha b’mitzvos from the אורחות צדיקים: The אורחותצדיקים writes that the opposite of simcha b’mitzvos is doing the mitzvos as a massa (a burden). The inference being that once the mitzvah is not a burden, rather the doer is minimally happy he already achieves the initial level of simcha b’mitzvos. You don’t have to be elated or ecstatic, just feeling not burdened. Avodas Hashem at that basic joy level is already worth 1000 times more. Applying Rav Dessler’s logic, once you go up another notch of joy the sachar level increases an exponential 1000. You are now at a million times the reward of a burdensome מצוה and the sky is literally the limit.One, perhaps, begins to see how constant simcha b’mitzvos was the key to the Ari’s unfathomable madreiga. The first step in inculcating this idea is to believe. Yes, reward increases exponentially. Yes, ה' is ready to give enormous amounts of sachar. Yes, simcha is really that much of a “game changer”.The Almighty obviously wants us to be happy to do His work. Knowing what a difference that joy makes will help us be עובדה' בשמחה כל ימינו!(please send comments and questions to rdsvaad@gmail.com)If you would like to receive these Avodah thougths every 2 weeks sign up at http://rdsvaadim.com/subscribe/